DIB director survives termination vote

Wednesday

PANAMA CITY — The director of the Downtown Improvement Board (DIB) survived an attempt to fire him Wednesday over the handling his pay and a secret meeting he called.

PANAMA CITY — The director of the Downtown Improvement Board (DIB) survived an attempt to fire him Wednesday over the handling his pay and a secret meeting he called.

But during the discussion, a second unannounced meeting — this one attended by Mayor Greg Brudnicki and City Commissioner John Kady — was disclosed, although the mayor said it did not violate state public meeting laws.

Several downtown property owners called on DIB members to fire Director Dutch Sanger for violating public trust by accepting questionable commissions and holding a meeting in a downtown restaurant to rectify the issue without proper public notice. DIB members rejected terminating Sanger’s employment in a 4-2 vote during the meeting. Sanger accepted $11,625 in commissions for acquiring a $125,000 BP grant and Fourth of July event funds from Panama City. Sanger will repay the money by taking it from his built up paid-leave hours.

But Kady, the downtown ward representative, pressed DIB members for action, leading to a motion for Sanger’s termination.

“I feel he is no longer effective as a director,” Kady said. “The public has lost confidence in him, and I would request the board consider terminating his contract.”

Several others supported Kady’s position.

“Our concern is a violation of trust,” said Jane Lindsey, owner of Elegant Endeavors.

“You have an image problem as this board to defend,” said Dwight Hicks, downtown property owner. “When you have a problem, you have to go to where the problem is and solve the problem.”

DIB Chairman Jim Hayden said he discussed the director’s contract, which states he receives a “10 percent commission of paid cash sponsorships,” with Sanger and agreed with the decision to collect those commissions.

“Dutch has been left to his own devices and that is a good and a bad thing,” Hayden said. “I’m not defending him but he didn’t steal any money. He didn’t misappropriate any funds.”

Sanger defended himself and said he returned the funds, not as an admission of guilt, but to help downtown.

“Nobody tried to hide anything,” Sanger said.

During the squabble, officials admitted to holding a meeting in late-February with Sanger, Hayden, Kady and Brudnicki present with no public notice to discuss how Sanger would repay the commissions.

“I called a meeting with you (Kady), with Dutch, with Mayor Brudnicki and myself to figure out how much time Dutch was owed,” Hayden said. “… You (Kady) threatened the very existence of the DIB, through the millage rate, if you didn’t get the outcome you wanted.”

“That’s exactly right,” Kady responded.

Contacted Wednesday night, Brudnicki said the meeting was not announced but because the meeting was a discussion of DIB business, and not subject to a City Commission vote, he and Kady did not violate Sunshine Laws.

“We can have lunch together, we can talk about anything we are not going to vote on,” Brudnicki said. “That’s not a violation of Sunshine (Laws).”

The Florida Attorney General’s website appears to support Brudnicki.

“The Sunshine law applies to all discussions or deliberations as well as the formal action taken by a board or commission,” it states. “The law, in essence, is applicable to any gathering, whether formal or casual, of two or more members of the same board or commission to discuss some matteron which foreseeable action will be taken by the public board or commission.”

Following the vote rejecting Sanger’s termination as DIB director, DIB members discussed redesigning the director’s contract to reward attracting business downtown instead of commissions for acquiring sponsorships for DIB events.

Hayden said operating procedures for the director’s position and annual performance reviews would be put in place before a new contract could be drafted and the DIB could move forward.

“If we can’t unify, go out there and say we’re proud of our DIB then we need to re-evaluate our positions on the board,” Hayden said. “Negativity isn’t going to make anybody anything.”

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